By Order of the President tpa-1 Read online

SURE

  The next development-which he thought was probably inevitable-was the realization that since he was connected to the Internet, his personal e-mail was thus available.

  The purpose of the conferences was to make sure everybody knew what everybody else was thinking, had done, or was planning to do. Very often General Naylor knew what most of the conferees were going to say when they stood up. Listening to something he already knew-or at least assigning his full attention to it-was a waste of time. Time that could be better spent reading what, for example, his sons thought would interest him.

  Both of his sons were in the Army and in Iraq. The oldest was a lieutenant colonel who had followed his father and grandfather into Armor. The youngest was a captain who commanded a Special Forces A-Team engaged in rounding up Saddam Hussein loyalists.

  Both of them-and he was very proud of the way they handled this-routinely sent him information they thought he might not otherwise get-even though everything military in Iraq was under his command-and would like to have. The information they sent met two criteria: It was not classified; and it contained not the slightest hint of criticism of any officer.

  There were many periods in many conferences when Naylor felt justified in reading e-mails from his sons instead of hearing one colonel or general explain something for the fifth time to a colonel or general who just didn't seem to be able to understand what he was being told.

  The conferees had no idea what the commanding general might be typing on his IBB, only that he had diverted his attention from them to it.

  The little box in the lower right corner of the laptop screen flicked brightly for an instant and then reported:

  YOU HAVE A NEW E-MAIL FROM CHARLEY@CASTILLO. COM

  Charley Castillo had a unique relationship on several levels with Allan B. Naylor, General, U.S. Army, Commanding General of the United States Cen-tral Command, any one of which would have given him access to Naylor's private e-mail address.

  One, which Naylor often thought was the most important, was that both he and Elaine considered him a third son-the middle son, so to speak-even though there was no blood connection between them. They had known him since he was twelve, when Charley had become an orphan.

  He was also officially one of Naylor's officers. The manning chart of Cent-Corn showed under the J-5, the Special Activities Section, and under the SAS, the Special Assignments Section, a list of names of officers and enlisted men on special assignments. One of them read

  CASTILLO, C.G., MAJ.

  "J-5" stood for "Joint Staff Division 5, Special Operations." The Special Activities Section of J-5 had to do with things known only to a very few people, and the Special Assignments Section was sort of the holding tank-they had to appear on the manning chart somewhere.

  General Naylor had had nothing to do with Major Castillo's assignment to what was colloquially known as "Jay-Five Sassas," although many people-including, he suspected, his wife and sons-suspected he did. Castillo had been assigned there routinely when he came back from Afghanistan. It was an assignment appropriate for someone of his rank and experience.

  General Naylor, however, had had everything to do with Major Castillo's present Jay-Five Sassas assignment.

  General Naylor was personally acquainted with Secretary of Homeland Security Matt Hall. They had met in Vietnam when Naylor had been a captain and Hall a sergeant and had stayed in touch and become close friends over the years as Naylor had risen in the Army hierarchy and Hall had become first a congressman and then governor of North Carolina and then secretary of homeland security.

  Hall, over a beer in the bar of the Army-Navy Club in Washington, had asked Naylor, "Allan, you don't just happen to know of a hell of a good linguist with all the proper security clearances, do you?"

  "How do you define 'good,' Matt?"

  "Preferably, male and single-I need somebody around all the time and that's awkward with a female-or a married person of either gender."

  Major C. G. Castillo was the next day placed on Indefinite Temporary Duty with the Office of the Secretary of Homeland Security, with the understanding between the general and the secretary being that if he wasn't what Hall needed, or they didn't get along, Castillo would be returned to MacDill.

  Two weeks after Castillo had gone to Washington, Hall had telephoned Naylor about Castillo.

  "How's Castillo doing?" Naylor had asked.

  "Until about an hour ago, I thought he was just what the doctor ordered," Hall said.

  "What happened an hour ago?"

  "I found out he's living in the Mayflower. How does he afford that on a major's pay?"

  "Didn't I mention that? He doesn't have to live on his major's pay."

  "No, you didn't," Hall said. "Why not?"

  "I didn't think it was important. Is it?"

  "Yeah. Washington is an expensive place to live. Now I won't have to worry about him having to go to Household Finance to make ends meet. Can I keep him, Allan?"

  "For as long as you need him."

  "Would you have any objection if I put him in civilian clothing most of the time and called him my executive assistant or something like that?"

  "He'll be doing more than translating?"

  "Uh-huh. Any problem with that?"

  "He's yours, Matt. I'm glad it's worked out."

  General Naylor clicked on the read button without thinking about it. The laptop screen filled up almost instantly.

  WE JUST GOT THIS FROM LANGLEY

  WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF IT?

  FOLLOWING RECEIVED 1133 23 MAY 2005 FROM LUANDA, ANGOLA, IS

  FORWARDED FOR YOUR INFORMATION.

  CONFIDENTIAL

  SATBURST 01 LUANDA 23 MAY 2005

  FOR REGDIR SWAFRICA

  A BOEING 727 TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT LA-9021 REGISTERED TO LEASE-AIRE,

  INC., PHILA., PENN., TOOK OFF WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM QUATRO DE

  FEVEREIRO AEROPORTO INTERNACIONAL AT 1425 LOCAL TIME 23 MAY 2005 AND

  DISAPPEARED FROM RADAR SHORTLY THEREAFTER. ANGOLAN AUTHORITIES KNOWN

  TO BELIEVE AIRCRAFT WAS STOLEN. MORE TO FOLLOW. STACHIEF LUANDA

  REGARDS

  CHARLEY

  There were several things wrong with Charley's message, which caused Naylor to frown thoughtfully, and which, in turn, caused half a dozen of the people at the conference table to wonder what had come over that goddamned IBB to cause the commanding general to frown thoughtfully.

  For one thing, I don't know if this is from Charley or Hall. Charley said, "We just got this message." Does "we" mean the Department of Homeland Security, or Matt and Charley, or just Charley using the regal "we"? Or what?

  Was Matt standing there when the message arrived and said, "Why don't we ask Naylor?" Or words to that effect?

  Or is this message a "What do you think of this, Uncle Allan?"-type message? Expressing idle curiosity? Or wanting to know what I think in case Matt asks him later?

  Damn it!

  ****

  The commanding general of Central Command rapped his water glass with a pencil and gained the attention of all the conferees.

  "Gentlemen," he said. "For several reasons, high among them that I think we're all a little groggy after being at this so long, I hereby adjourn this conference until tomorrow morning, place and time to be announced by Sergeant Major Suggins.

  "The second reason is that it has just come to my attention that an airliner has allegedly been stolen in Luanda, Angola, and I would like to know what, if anything, anyone here knows about it."

  He looked at Mr. Lawrence P. Fremont as he spoke. Mr. Fremont was the liaison officer between Central Command and the Central Intelligence Agency. It was obvious that Mr. Fremont had absolutely no idea what Naylor was talking about.

  Neither, to judge from the looks on their faces, did Vice-Admiral Louis J.

  Warley, USN, Central Command's J-2 (Intelligence Officer); nor Lieutenant General George H. Potter, USA, the CentCom J-5; nor Mr. Brian Willis, who was the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Resident Special Agent in Charge, known as the SAC.

  I didn't expect all of them to be on top of this, but none of them? Jesus H. Christ!

  "I'd like Mr. Fremont, Admiral Warley, Mr. Willis, and General Potter to stay behind a moment, please. The rest of you gentlemen may go, with my thanks for your devoted attention during a long and grueling session," General Naylor said.

  Everybody but the four people he had named filed out of the conference room.

  Naylor looked at the four men standing by the conference table.

  "If it would be convenient, gentlemen, I'd like to see you all in my office in twenty minutes, together with what you can find out about:" He dropped his eyes to the laptop, and read, ": CIA Satburst 01, Luanda, 23 May, in that time." He looked up at Potter, and added, "Larry, see if you can find out who the CIA man is in Luanda. I'd like to know who sent this message."

  "I think I know, sir," General Potter said.

  Naylor looked at him.

  General Potter, aware that General Naylor believed that no information is better than wrong information, said, "I'm not sure, sir. I'll check."

  "Yeah," General Naylor said.

  He looked at the door and saw Sergeant Major Suggins.

  "Suggins, would you ask General McFadden if he's free to come to my office in twenty minutes?"

  General Albert McFadden, U.S. Air Force, was the CentCom deputy commander.

  "Yes, sir."

  General Naylor then turned his attention to the IBB, pushed the REPLY key, and typed:

  WORKING ON IT. I'LL GET BACK TO YOU. REGARDS, NAYLOR.

  When he looked up, he saw that General Potter was standing just inside the door.

  Potter was a tall, thin, ascetic-looking man who didn't look much like what come
s to mind when "Special Forces" is said. Naylor knew that he had been, in his day, one hell of a Green Beanie, a contemporary of the legendary Scotty McNab. And that he was anything but ascetic. He was a gourmet cook, especially seafood.

  "You have something?" Naylor asked.

  "Yes, sir. General, I know who the CIA guy is in Angola. He's one of us," Potter said.

  "One of us what?"

  "He's a special operator, General," Potter said, smiling again. "He took a pretty bad hit in Afghanistan with the 160th, and when he got out of the hospital on limited duty we loaned him to the agency. I thought he was going to help run their basic training program at the Farm, but apparently they sent him to Angola."

  The 160th was the Special Operations Aviation Regiment.

  "You have his name?"

  "Miller. H. Richard Miller, Jr. Major."

  "Good man," Naylor said.

  "You know him?"

  "Him and his father and grandfather," Naylor said. "I didn't get to meet his great-grandfather, or maybe it was his great-great-grandfather. But in the Spanish-American War, he was first sergeant of Baker Troop, 10th Cavalry, when Teddy Roosevelt led the Rough Riders through their lines and up San Juan Hill. I heard he was hit:" Charley told me. ": in Afghanistan. They shot down his helicopter: a Loach, I think."

  "Yeah. It was a Loach. A piece of something got his knee."

  "Have we got a back channel to him, George?"

  "It's up and running, sir. We got a back channel from Miller about this missing airplane before you heard about it."

  "And my notification was out of channels," Naylor said, just a little bitterly. "But I suppose, in good time, CentCom will hear about this officially. I'm really sick and tired of Langley taking their goddamned sweet time before they bring me in the loop." He heard what he had said and added: "You didn't hear that."

  Potter smiled and made an "I don't know what you're talking about" gesture.

  "Let me see whatever he sends," Naylor ordered.

  "Yes, sir."

  [THREE]

  What was at first euphemistically described as "establishing some really first-rate liaison" between the CIA and the FBI and CentCom was a direct result of the events of what had universally become known as "9/11," the crashing of skyjacked airliners into the twin towers of the World Trade Center and into the Pentagon and, short of its target in the capital, into the Pennsylvania countryside.

  No one said it out loud but Central Command was the most important headquarters in the Army. According to its mission statement, it was responsible "for those areas of the world not otherwise assigned."

  Army forces in the continental United States were assigned to one of the five armies in the United States, except those engaged in training, which were assigned to the Training amp; Doctrine Command with its headquarters within the thick stone walls of Fortress Monroe, Virginia.

  Southern Command, which had had its headquarters in Panama for many years, now listed its address as 3511 NW 91st Avenue, Miami, Florida 33172-1217. It was responsible for Central and South America. No one feared immediate war with, say, Uruguay, Chile, or Argentina, or even Venezuela or Colombia, although a close eye was kept on the latter two, and, of course, on Cuba.

  The Far East Command had responsibility for the Pacific. There were no longer very many soldiers in the Pacific because no one expected war to break out there tomorrow afternoon. The European Command, as the name implied, had the responsibility for Europe. For nearly half a century, there had been genuine concern that the Red Army would one day crash through the Fulda Gap bent on sweeping all of Europe under the Communist rug. That threat no longer existed.

  Some people wondered what sort of a role was now left for the North American Treaty Organization, whose military force was headed by an American general, now that the Soviet threat was minimal to nonexistent, and NATO was taking into its ranks many countries it had once been prepared to fight.

  The Alaskan Command had the responsibility for Alaska. There was very little of a threat that the now Russian Army would launch an amphibious attack across the Bering Strait from Siberia with the intention of occupying Fairbanks or Nome.

  That left Central Command with the rest of the world, and most of the wars being fought and/or expected to start tonight or tomorrow morning. Iraq is in CentCom's area of responsibility, and CentCom had already fought one war there and was presently fighting another.

  But the reason General Allan Naylor believed that he commanded the most important headquarters in the Army was that it wasn't just an Army headquarters but rather a truly unified command, which meant that Naylor more often than not had Air Force, Navy, and Marine units, as well as Army, under his command.

  The operative word was "command." He had the authority to issue orders, not make requests or offer suggestions of the other services.

  And for this he was grateful to one of his personal heroes, General Donn A. Starry, USA, now retired. Starry, like Naylor, was Armor. As a young colonel in Vietnam, while leading the Cambodian Incursion from the turret of the first tank, Starry had been painfully wounded in the face, had the wound bandaged, and then got back in his tank and resumed the incursion. One of his majors, who had jumped from his tank to go to the aid of his injured commander, was himself badly wounded and lost a leg.

  Many people in the Army had been pleasantly surprised when Starry had been given his first star. Officers who say what they think often find this a bar to promotion, and Starry not only said what he thought but was famous for not letting tact get in the way of making his points clear. People were thus even more surprised when he was given a second star and command of Fort Knox, then a third star and command of the V Corps in Frankfurt, Germany, charged with keeping the Red Army from coming through the Fulda Gap, and then a fourth star.

  The Army thought four-star General Starry would be just the man to assume command of what was then called "Readiness Command" at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. General Starry, however, said, "No, thank you. I think I'll retire. I don't want to go out of the Army remembered as a paper tiger."

  Starry's refusal to take the command came to the attention of President Reagan, who called him to the White House to explain why.

  Starry told Reagan that so far as he was concerned, Readiness Command was useless as presently constituted. It was supposed to be ready to instantly respond to any threat when ordered.

  But when ordered to move, Starry told the president that the way things were, the general in command had to ask the Air Force for airplanes-for which they certainly would have a better use elsewhere-and ask the Navy for ships-for which the Navy would have a better use elsewhere-and then ask, for example, the European Commander for a couple of divisions-for which EUCOM, again, would nave a far better use elsewhere.

  It was rumored that Starry had used the words "joke" and "dog and pony show" to describe Readiness Command to the president. No one knows for sure, for their meeting was private. What is known is that Starry walked out of the Oval Office as commanding general of Readiness Command and the word of the commander in chief that just as soon as he could sign the orders, the CG of Readiness Command would have the authority Starry said he absolutely had to have.

  The president was as good as his word. Starry reorganized what was to become Central Command so that it would function when needed and then retired. When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, and the first President Bush ordered CentCom to respond, its then commander, General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, went to war using the authorities Starry had demanded of Reagan and Reagan had given to CentCom.

  Schwarzkopf's ground commander in the first desert war was General Fred Franks. Franks was the U.S. Army's first one-legged general since the Civil War. He'd lost his leg as a result of Vietnam wounds incurred as he rushed to help his wounded colonel, Donn Starry.

  CentCom's command structure had worked in the first desert war, and it had worked in the new one. And General Allan Naylor was determined that it would remain in force. Sometimes, he thought that was just about as hard a battle to fight as were the shooting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.